The present disclosure relates generally to wireless systems.
Bluetooth is a specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth provides a standard way to connect and exchange information between devices with wireless circuitry such as mobile phones, headsets, laptops, personal computers, and Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony devices, over a short-range radio frequency. Part of the Bluetooth specification describes a method for a first Bluetooth compliant device to discover a second Bluetooth compliant device when the first and second Bluetooth compliant devices are brought within range of each other. The Bluetooth specification also describes at least one method of authenticating Bluetooth devices.
The discovery and authentication processes may also be streamlined using Bluetooth pairing. Bluetooth pairing occurs when two Bluetooth compliant devices agree to communicate with one another. The two devices join what is known as a trusted pair. When one device recognizes another device in an established trusted pair, each device automatically accepts a connection from the other, bypassing the complete discovery and authentication processes that would otherwise occur when the devices are first brought within range of each other.
Version 2.1 of the Bluetooth specification introduced Secure Simple Pairing. Secure Simple Pairing is based on each of the two Bluetooth compliant devices having a public key and a private key. The private keys are generally not transmitted from either device and are used for encrypting data sent to the other device. The public keys are transmitted during the pairing process. A public key may be used to authoritatively verify that a device transmitting the public key is a trusted device by decrypting the encrypted data sent by the device. The encrypted data may only be decrypted using the public key of the device if the corresponding private key was used to encrypt the data.